Rabbi Arnold Saltzman
Rabbi, Sha’are Shalom, Waldorf, Maryland
So much has been already been said about this tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who suffered this horrendous violence against young school children and those who taught them and protected them. An insane young man has brought violence into the lives of everyone who lives in our country through his senseless attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
This week as I taught students in Maryland, Virginia, and DC, I asked each one if they had discussed what had happened and if they needed to express concerns and feelings.
One six year old girl, Sarah, drew a masked bandit at a school. I then suggested that she draw a policeman arresting the bandit. She liked that idea! (both the bandit and policeman were girls!)
Another student, her sister, Diana, suggested that we have trap doors at entrances so that we can send the intruder to the basement!
A High School student said that her school was dedicating Friday this week to making snow flakes out of paper in order to send them to the students in Newtown as they return to school in the beginning of a new year, and so these snow flakes will increase their sense that others care about them and are thinking about them.
If we learn one thing from this and other tragedies in our country we learn that we live in a wonderful country filled with compassionate people. Everyone feels the effect of this tragedy. This week has been like a week of Yom Kippur for the United States. This has been a week of afflicting ourselves with questions: What did we do wrong? Have we been too lax on gun control, or on our culture which celebrates violence and makes it appealing and seductive through movies and games?
I often feel like the man crying out in the wilderness when I mention the violence of games and movies. We have real world violence that the world is silent about – terrorism in Israel against Israelis who are at a seder, at work, in a playground, a school, or a beach. We see the images of terror in the market in Iraq or Afghanistan, in India in a Hotel or again targeting Jews in a Chabad House, and terror in Pakistan where people giving a polio vaccine were killed while accused of being involved in espionage. A young girl in Pakistan who wants girls to have an education is shot on her way to school.
The most lasting terror of all is WWII, and the Holocaust, with millions killed, including the targeting and killing of one and one half million children. We see and hear about endless terror in Africa with no end in sight.
Exposure to terror, violence, the events of this week are not good for anyone. How do we cope with it? How can we make children feel safe in this world and all of its dangers?
When our sons, Josh and Michael, went to Duke Ellington School in DC, the graduations were as much a religious celebration of life as a graduation. Many people were so happy at the High School graduation because their children had survived the dangers of growing up in DC. Parents were celebrating life and survival as much as educational accomplishment.
This has all been brought home to us to each and everyone one of us through TV, Radio, News, and computers. All of us are there – we are all in mourning.
What can we do? One suggestion is to bless our children and family every week, every day. For they are the future and the blessings in our lives.
Remember Moshe, Moses, who said “Today I give you the choice of the blessing or the curse!”
Today lets choose the blessing and commit ourselves to see each other, to hear each other, and to help one another, so we are less isolated, so we can urge someone to find help if we see them in emotional distress.
Lets all work together for better laws that are true to Jewish tradition. It was Abraham who fought against the worship of idols because children were sacrificed to them. The story of Abraham and Isaac is a story that clearly communicates to us that God does not want us to sacrifice our children. We have made guns into ‘God.’ We need to change that so that people come first not the rights of gun ownership.
Efforts to reduce gun violence work. Will we be totally safe? Probably not. Will there be other events like the one in Newtown? I hope not, but if there is another attempt, lets hope that our collective effort can stop it. One step is to ban assault and automatic weapons. No one has the right to these, and we can’t imagine why anyone would want them. Put them in a museum!
Guess what Santa is being asked for by the boys for Xmas? Yes, guns, and one Santa has said this week that you wont be getting a gun for the holiday!
Lo Alecha Hamlacha Ligmor – It is not for you to complete the task, yet you are not free from trying. We may not be able to end this insanity, but we, as a society and country have to try to do more to end this terrible fact of our history that 9600 people were killed last year in gun related incidents.
As a rabbi I have felt threatened on occasion. I did not acquire a gun to protect myself, rather I relied on my faith and faith in our police. When I feel overwhelmed I see a therapist who takes some of the ‘Brooklyn’ out of me, and when I see someone else who is in need of a friend, I try to be friend. Perhaps that is the meaning of ‘In a place where there is no man, be a man.’ We can say in a place where there is an absence of human compassion, be compassionate.
In the New Year let us all bless our families, and let us choose the blessing. Together we can make it a year which will be remembered as the year which ended these tragedies. We have to make this happen so we can have a drawing of a school without the bandit, or the trap door. Lets keep the snowflakes! May you and your loved ones have a Happy, Healthy, and Peaceful New Year!